A Pair of Second Chances: Co-Founders of Returning Citizens Support Group recount experience earning their own second chances
Second chances aren’t just given - they’re earned day by day.
Edwin “Chino” Ortiz and his brother, Carmelo Ortiz are co-founders of Returning Citizens Support Group (RCSG), a Newark-based organization that provides re-entry supports and wrap-around services in systems-impacted communities. The supports that RCSG offers - which include career services, support groups, social-emotional services and adaptive support - ensure that those returning home from incarceration have a real second chance at being successful.
However, Chino and Carmelo didn’t have such support when it came to getting their second chance — the journey toward obtaining theirs challenged not just their resilience but their trust in themselves.
Before founding RCSG, Chino and Carmelo were just a couple of kids from the North Ward of Newark who got good grades, liked to hang out with their friends after school and went to church every Sunday. But with the lack of positive role models and the growing peer pressure to succumb to the vices present in their environment, Chino and Carmelo spiraled into a situation that would take decades to get out of.
“I grew up in a neighborhood where there weren't many teachers, many doctors, or many professionals,” Carmelo said. “So the people that I idolized were the stick-up kids, the pimps, you know, the people that had a lot of flash. And so those were the people that I was looking up to. I was looking up to all the wrong people.”
As they entered their early twenties, Chino and Carmelo began to experience the repercussions of idolizing the men they never wanted to become. A man was killed during an armed robbery that Chino and Carmelo were involved in and they were subsequently sentenced to 30 years in prison.
“We were doing good in school until certain factors threw us from our focus,” Chino said. “When we went to prison, we had older guys inside the system who became our mentors and also our surrogate fathers, surrogate uncles and surrogate brothers. They would say, ‘Read a book. Don't waste all day building your muscles and not your mind.’ And I listened because I wasn’t a bad kid. I wasn’t listening when I was in the streets because I didn't want to hear anything. I just wanted to get high and do what I do. But when I got to prison, I was able to stop, think and listen.”
While serving their sentences, Chino and Carmelo saw men reenter prison one, two, three, and sometimes four times. They didn’t understand why some returned in less than six months. Witnessing this common occurrence led them to create RCSG because once they came home, they realized the missing piece that many formerly incarcerated people were missing – proper support systems.
Although they had their family’s support, Chino and Carmelo expressed how difficult it was to transition back to their lives outside the criminal justice system. For Carmelo, it took a toll on him mentally and physically. Having not been in a car for 30 years, he got carsick during the drive back to Newark from the prison. But even though the drive was less than ten minutes, Chino and Carmelo were transported to a world that they didn’t recognize and a world that, unfortunately, didn’t recognize them.
Carmelo said, “What we have today wasn't available for me when I came home. I didn't have any ID. I didn't have a birth certificate. I had no social security card. I had no form of identification, with the exception of an ID that said in bold red letters. ‘This is not a legal document.’”
RCSG co-founders Chino, Carmelo and Al Tariq Witcher work to ensure that other formerly incarcerated individuals don’t experience the harshness the brothers experienced when acclimating to their return home. RCSG’s goal isn’t just to reduce recidivism - it’s to ensure that the men and women they serve survive, thrive and become active community members. Since founding RCSG in 2017, Chino and Carmelo have supported over 5,000 returning citizens.
RCSG hosts meetings every Thursday evening from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Newark Conservancy on 32 Prince Street, where they have trauma-informed discussions about the challenges that returning citizens and their families face coming home. According to Chino and Carmelo, this is a space where “everyone is welcome.”
Opportunity youth are strongly connected to the work being done at RCSG, as opportunity youth are more likely to experience incarceration. 1 2 RCSG is a partner to OYN’s work to create pathways to success, which impact not only young people, but their families, peers and community.
OYN Founder and Chief Executive Officer Robert Clark said, “Chino and Carmelo’s story is a powerful one. One that is all too common but also shows their dedication to the larger community, including justice-involved individuals, who are often not given the support needed to be successful. Chino and Carmelo are making great strides to ensure they are.”
Since serving their sentences and founding RCSG, Carmelo graduated Magna Cum Laude from Rutgers University with bachelor’s degrees in criminal justice and Chino studied and obtained credentials to become a paralegal. And as they continue to exemplify their organization’s mission and vision, Chino and Carmelo make every second of their second chance count.
1 Rumberger, Russell. Dropping Out: Why Students Drop Out of High School and What Can be Done About It. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2011.
2 Lansford, Jennifer, Dodge, Kenneth, Pettit, Gregory, and Bates, John. A Public Health Perspective on School Dropout and Adult Outcomes: A Prospective Study of Risk and Protective Factors from Age 5 to 27. Juvenile and Adolescent Health, 58 (6), 2016.
